“When I started the awards in 2003, it was really to shine a light on the leadership success that women were enjoying across the economy,” said WXN founder Pamela Jeffery.

Jeffery said that women have come a long way in the past decade, quoting statistics that explain that in the year 2000, 20.8% of senior management positions were held by women and that by 2011, that number had risen to 28.7%, an increase of almost 40%.

“There’s great progress being made, but there is more that needs to be done, clearly, because we still have too few women on executive teams, in CEO roles and in boardrooms,” said Jeffery.